4-20-19
by Wonder777
Summary: This is a side story about the last time Andrew and Crystal saw each other before "Mists of the Past". Part of the "Crystal Chronicles" Universe. Andrew-centric.


_**4/20/2019**_

Saturday, April 20th, 2019. It had been almost six and a half years since Andrew had been here. Now he has been sent back, this time with a team of other Angels of Death to bring Home souls after what was about to happen. This date had tragic significance to the blonde haired angel.

He had been at another school on this day twenty years earlier out west. It was a beautiful day, much like now. The mere thought of that day made him shudder. Assignments like this often make him consider requesting a transfer from the Death department.

For now all he and the others with him knew was that something was going to happen. A frown wrinkles his handsome face as he waits, waiting for a word from above. People were leaving, including one that seemed very familiar to Andrew.

"Okay Mrs. Moore, we have a few hours to spare before the book signing at the mall," Alicia mentions as she and her boss were walking out the front door of the school. "are you sure you don't want to go back to the hotel and lay down? You don't look so good." She had been busy being a speaker at a writer's workshop.

"I'm okay." She tells her assistant as she calls her husband. "Alex? It's me honey. We just wrapped up and I'm about to have a late lunch with Mom and Dad before the signing. I can't wait for you to wrap up in California and come over here." Then she stops as someone catches her eye. A man, standing there, about ten feet away.

It couldn't be...Andrew? The angel who was sent to help her almost seven years earlier. Then the feeling she had all day in her stomach grew to full blown panic. He still had the blonde hair and the features she never could forget. Something big was going down she knew it.

He sees his old assignment and says one word to her, "Run". Crystal then saw others appear out of nowhere, dressed similar to Andrew. She shouts to her assistant and driver a split second before the explosions began.

Walking into the lobby, Andrew sees attendees and teachers running from the blasts. Then he hears the gunshots and following them to a classroom where a lone male, had a girl by the hair. She had looked over and sees the angel. "Do you believe in God?" He asks her and with great courage she says "Either answer, you're going to kill me anyway. Yes I do." One shot and she was lifeless.

Andrew takes her Home, commending her for standing up for God. He sees people out in the parking lot, including his old assignment. She was trying to get her bearings and again they locked eyes. Crystal had scratches from where she fell and from the flying debris. A small gash was bleeding from just above her eye, but wasn't serious by what he could tell.

All Crystal remembers is the force of the blasts sending them flying across the parking lot. She feels something break in her arm on impact, her assistant lying unconscious beside her. Their driver was probably dead, a piece of metal had impaled his skull, eyes open in shock.

She had her phone in hand, a male voice frantically panicking, asking what just happened. "I have no idea, but call my mom. Tell her and Dad I love them in case something happens. But I think my arm is broken." She tells him before hanging up.

It was so loud it hurt his human ears, making him flinch. He then leads the others inside of the school, but not before taking one last look at the three humans on the ground. Making sure they were all right, Andrew goes ahead with the task at hand.

There were three boys who planned this. One backed out at the last minute so there was only two and they were still inside. He goes back in and finds the one who shot the girl. The other was later found dead being too close to homemade bomb when it detonated.

In the library, Daniel had blocked the only way in or out. A scrawny white boy in torn jeans and a t-shirt emblazoned with a bleeding skull and a long black trench coat. Covered in head to toe in soot, blood and other biological matter, he was putting on a proud front.

But Andrew had seen enough of people like him to know the fear in his eyes. The pain, every little emotional cut that became a hemorrhagic gush that expressed itself outwardly as anger and rage was clear to the angel. In all of his existence, he still could never could understand how humans can do this to each other. Especially in the last 20 years.

Extending a hand to the boy, Andrew tries to convince him to stop, telling him of God's love. But he wouldn't have any of it. Pacing the floor, he kicked random victims and then asked each of them if they believed in God like he did earlier. One answered "Yes" and Daniel fires a shot into his skull, then continues like nothing happened.

 _It was all going as planned_ , he thought. Ignoring the angel following him, he then enters one of the study rooms, locking the door. Andrew tries again to convince him to stop, but Daniel addresses him. "I don't know what you're trying to sell me, but I ain't buying it. You don't know what it's like being me. That's why I took my cue from the boys in Colorado who failed. I want to have their fame by finishing what they failed to do." Then he reaches into a pocket of his long trench coat and pulls out what looked like a remote control.

He then pulls up his shirt, exposing a bomb vest. It was packed with enough explosives to pulverize his body into goop. Andrew knew that he would have to work quickly if he had a chance to stop this. "Why do you feel the need to do this? What about the families of those you killed?"

Daniel glares at the angel with a demonic look. "My parents, they don't care. School officials, they sit at their desks protecting the bullies. But I found someone online who care for me. Blessed me in God's name, they helped provide the materials with instructions of how to build the bombs to bring down this indoctrination center. I am promised a place in Heaven and declared a martyr." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a picture.

Andrew gasps as it was the picture of a man who leads a group that is only known for showing up at funerals and harassing the goers. "Listen," he says to the boy, "God will never condone anything like this. He is weeping over this as we speak, he isn't laughing. As for those boys who shot up the school 20 years ago, you don't want to know where they are and they're certainly not with God."

Daniel had a look of scrutiny on his face. "I DON'T CARE! Shut up and let me finish this off. This is what God wants me to do." Andrew lowers his head, he had failed. Then the boy gives the picture in his hand a kiss and hands it to the angel. With a short, futile prayer, presses the button.

A loud explosion fills the room. Andrew, unharmed by his angelic form sees the end result. The boy's remains scattered throughout the small room, even outside the now shattered door. Then a series of other booms follow in short order. _They were all timed._

Daniel's soul then appears, looking just like his physical form, but opaque. "What happened? Where to next, to get my reward?" He asks, looking at his now mangled body.

"No. It will be judgement next. That group played you like a fool and they don't give one iota about you." Andrew tells him, a look of anger and sadness on his face. Then they walk through the library, passing all the victims lying there. Dead, dying and wounded all there. The now dead boy keeps a blank look on his face, until he sees someone.

On the floor was a teacher, his favorite. A bullet wound to the arm, trying to help a student stay awake. That was when he broke down. "What did I just do? He always was there for me and I failed him."

"Time to go." Andrew places his hand on the boy's shoulder as they vanish. Daniel was in a state of shock, the reality of what he did setting in. He walks into the courtroom of Heaven and receives his sentence, eternal separation from God.

The picture was found and with other evidence, the group who influenced the boys were taken down. It was all to create a platform to draw attention towards their demonic message veiled behind a Bible. Daniel's parents would later commit suicide due to all the death threats and shame.


End file.
